SLS Report Cards: Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES

School Library Systems are a state-aided program set forth in Education Law
and Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. Each BOCES and the Big 5
Cities (NYC, Yonkers, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse) sponsor the program,
which provides vital library and information resources to public and non-public
schools. Each system operates under an approved five-year Plan of Service. Some of the key functions of SLS are: to provide leadership and training through professional development activities, enrich the NYS Learning Standards by providing information literacy awareness and skills training; facilitate resource-sharing among its participating school libraries; interlibrary loan activity for 2007-2008 amounted to over a 1/2 million items statewide; facilitate access to electronic databases through NOVELNY (New York On-line Virtual Electronic Library) for over 3,500 schools statewide; promote advances in technology for information storage, retrieval and access to school library collections; focus on cooperative collection development of participating school libraries; address the information needs of special client groups and participate in regional library initiatives with the public, academic, special and other school libraries. Students, teachers and administrators in each SLS service area benefit from the programs and services of the School Library System.